Harry and Sharptooth continued to wait in the room in silence for a few minutes before three goblins, each appearing much older than Sharptooth, walked into the room.
Harry and Sharptooth immediately stood up to welcome the new arrivals.
The three new arrivals approached and stopped directly in front of Harry, their eyes settling directly on him.
Harry felt a bit awkward being stared at like this and having no other idea about how to respond, he decided to introduce himself.
“Hello,” he said.
“I am Harry Potter.”
The three men smiled in return, their pointed teeth shining brightly.
“As Runook described, you are truly respectful, even to us, Mr.
Potter,” the goblin in the middle said, with a tint of respect in his voice.
“But our names are of no importance,” he continued.
“What is important is that we are healers, goblin healers, and we need to study the magical binding on you so that we can remove it.”
Harry simply nodded in response.
The lead healer snapped his fingers, and a large bed appeared in the middle of the room, pushing the two chairs toward the corners.
Harry was a bit surprised at this sudden display of magic but he did not let any reaction appear on his face.
“Lie down, Mr.
Potter, and please remove your upper clothing,” the lead healer instructed.
Harry, though he felt a bit embarrassed, did as he was told, removing his clothes and lying bare-chested on the bed.
Looking over his lean, fragile frame, the four goblins took only a moment to conclude that the young Harry had been abused and malnourished since early childhood, but none commented on it.
That was a topic for later discussion.
The three goblins surrounded Harry.
Each of them had something resembling a wooden brush in their hands and using it they began to draw strange symbols on his chest.
As the seconds ticked by, their expressions began to change one that towards anger and within minutes, the three healers were red with rage.
“What happened?” Sharptooth questioned, in a cautious voice, seeing their anger.
“Whoever did this is extremely barbaric,” the lead healer almost roared in anger.
“Doing something like this to a child is disgusting.”
“It seems he, whoever did this,” he continued, “wanted Mr.
Potter to be nothing more than a mentally retarded Squib, or possibly to die of magical exhaustion even while casting basic spells.”
“And why is a blood ward anchored to you?” One of the other goblins bellowed in fury.
“Wards are not meant to be anchored by humans, but by magical ley lines,” he continued.
“Furthermore, there is a post deflection binding on your body.”
This comment made it clear to both Sharptooth and Harry exactly where the letters from Gringotts had gone, which Sharptooth had sent.
“It seems that all your posts were first intercepted by Dumbledore himself,” Sharptooth commented.
“And it was he, who then decided what you were allowed to see and what you were not allowed to see.”
“Can you remove the binding?” Harry asked, a bit anxiously.
“Yes, we can remove it, without any doubt,” the lead healer replied.
“You should thank whatever god you pray to, Mr.
Potter,” he remarked.
“I cannot even fathom how you have kept your soul, magic, and mind together despite this binding,”
“For now, do not remove the blood ward,” Harry said, keeping in mind what Antioch had instructed.
“I do not want the person responsible to know they have been tampered with.
Someone is going to help me find a way to fool these wards later.”
“Also,” Harry questioned, “if the post deflection binding is removed, will Dumbledore be notified?”
“No,” the healer replied.
“He may become suspicious if he stops receiving your mail, but he would not be notified immediately.”
“Get those removed too,” said Harry.
The lead goblin nodded and did not inquire further.
“Sharptooth,” he said.
“Prepare the ritual room.
This binding is a powerful one.
We need to be accurate and precise during the removal process.”
Harry was then taken deep inside Gringotts on an exhilarating cart journey.
The odd group of four goblins and one human eventually arrived inside a massive room.
The space inside the room was enormous, with very high ceilings, and the room was completely empty.
The walls of the room were marked with various engravings depicting complex runes, but Harry did not have even the slightest understanding of them.
After all, he had taken the easy way out in his third year by choosing Divination and Care of Magical Creatures as his electives and not the Ancient Runes.
The lead healer moved to the center of the room and gestured for Harry to stand on a specific square marking.
After removing his upper clothing once more, Harry stood on the mark.
With a wave of the lead healer’s hand, numerous runes lit up on the floor, forming intricate symbols and shapes.
“This is a ritual room, but sadly, many of our old rituals have been classified as ‘Dark Magic’ and banned by the Ministry,” the lead healer explained.
“A few decades ago, our ritual rooms were in great demand by humans and we earned a lot of gold from them, but now they generally remain out of commission.”
“This room can perform many functions, but for now, we only need a simple one,” he continued.
“These engravings you see will help keep your magic smooth and controlled.
The abrupt removal of the binding will cause a massive surge of magic to flow through the body, which can cause damage to both you and your surroundings.
These runes will mitigate those effects.”
“Shall we start?” asked the lead healer, looking at Harry Potter.
Harry nodded in agreement, and the three goblin healers surrounded him, forming a circle.
With another swipe of their hands, the goblins began the work of removing the binding.
More and more runes lit up in the room as the process continued and using their brushes they continued to engrave Harry’s chest and even on his shoulders and his arms.
Minutes began to trickle by, and as the time passed, Harry literally started to feel magic flowing through his body.
He felt his physical body becoming lighter, his mind growing clearer, and his soul feeling truly free.
The process continued for forty five minutes, and with each passing second, Harry felt himself growing stronger.
The lingering pain he carried in his body, thanks to Dudley, also began to heal.
He felt deeply connected to his magic and was absolutely in love with the sensation coursing through him.
“We are finished here, Mr.
Potter.
How do you feel?” the lead healer questioned.
“I feel so good,” he said cheerfully.
“I feel powerful and free.”
“The binding must have been putting an immense strain on you,” Sharptooth remarked.
“Thank goodness you somehow managed to find out about this.”
“Come,” he continued, “let us go back and continue our conversation.”
With their work complete, the three goblin healers departed in a different direction.
Harry and Sharptooth arrived back in the same room where they had originally started their meeting.
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